I am pleased to welcome
you to the village where I was born on 25 th of October, 1975,
yet during Soviet times (when famous Leonid Brezhnev ruled in the
USSR and whom I remember from the communist parades on the TV).
Name of this village is written in my birth certificate.

View over the house of
my grandparents (in the center, white metal roof, which is my
work too since I helped the master (from Tsiutskiv/Malynivka
village) to install it up on the top of it...On this road and
lanscapes I spent all my childhood and young years and it is the
closest to my heart.

About Pidvysoke:

Pidvysoke is small village (about 400
inhabitants) in Berezhany district of Western Ukraine. It is
located 18 km south west of Berezhany, on the highway Ternopil
Stryy, as well as it is a major railway station on the railway
Ternopil -Rohatyn-Khodoriv. Pidvysoke was the center of limestone
mining in theregion (as the surrounding hills contain lots of
limestone) and had a limestone slaking factory (which was run by
Jewish and Polish entrepreneurs in Austrian and Polish times).
The village has beautiful a gothic church, formerly a Polish
Roman Catholic chapel which served the local Polish population.
The chapel was destroyed during Soviet rule and restored
thereafter, serving the local Greek-Catholic community. But
family is Evangelical (and me of course) and attends Evangelical
Church in nearby Verkhnya Lypytsia. The village had an Austrian
military hospital during the First World War, and thus there was
Austrian military cemetery nearby (now destroyed). It was on the
front line during the First World War. It is the first village at
the entrance to the Ternopil region on the highway
Ternopil-Stryj. The next village is Lopushna, adjacent to
Pidvysoke, located in the Rahatyn District of the Ivano-Frankivsk
Region. The distance to Rohatyn is 14 km. 2 km from Pidvysoke is
the village Verkhnya Lypytsia, which gave its name to the Lipica
Archeological Culture after archaeological excavations in the
late 19th century which discovered an ancient Dacian settlement
there. I was born and raised in Pidvysoke; my grandparents live
there, as well. See my grandparents house in
Pidvysoke. And me near that house.

Views of Pidvysoke
Mountain, a pasture where daily I pastured cows of my
grandaparents
during summer school holidays. The white line in the valley are
white train vagons-refrigirators at the railway station.

Short history of
Pidvysoke

Pidvysoke was a small town before and there was
even castle! Now there is only castle hill left. Just like
Berezhany and the rest of Halychyna (in English: Galicia), first
it was part of Rus (Ukrainian) Halych/Galic principality until
the mid 14 th century when it was incorporated in Poland and was
part of Polish kingdom until 1772. From 1772 to 1918 it was part
of Austria and then of short lived West Ukraine National Republic
in 1918 when it was taken by Poles and again was in Poland for 20
years (1920-1939). In 1939 just like the rest of halychyna, it
was occupied by Soviets and included into the Soviet Union's
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became independent in
1991.

Angel sculpture at the
old burial monument of Pidvysoke cemetery.

Before 1939 it was mainly populated by Poles along with some
Ukrainians and if you go to Pidvysoke Old Cemetery you will see
Polish surnames (among them Kacewicz, Karczewicz, Wilhelm Huber,
the first I can remember, etc.) written in Polish at the most of
old burial monuments. After the war when the area was taken by
Soviets, all the Poles from Pidvysoke were resettled to Poland
and now you will find no more Poles living in Pidvysoke. It is
exclusively Ukrainian village. Many Lemkos live there. Lemkos are
ethnic group of Ukrainians who lived in Poland and were
forcefully resettled from their native lands east to Ukraine.
That's why they happened to be living in Pidvysoke now. But
younger generation does not speak anymore Lemko dialect but local
dialect of Ukrainian language. One can name it "Berezhany
dialect" where potatoes are usually called
"barabolia" instead of "kartoplia" of
literary Ukrainian.
In 1924 two Jewish enterprenuers GOLD and SINGER started business
in Pidvysoke and founded Pidvysoke Lime Stone Slaking factory to
slake the limestone which is mined in Pidvysoke mountains. This limestone slaking plant works
til nowadays in pidvysoke and my
grandafther was main enginneer there for many years and he
modernized it and built a few oven towers.

Entrance to Pidvysoke, which is the fisrt
village when entering Ternopil province (oblast) from the west.
And he first house behind this table with inscription
"Ternopilska oblast" is ours, of my grandaparents.

Name:

The village Pidvysoke got its name because of
its geographical position "under he high mountains".
The mountains in Pidvysoke are high at ab. 400 meters. The name
is composed of two words "Pid" (under) and
"vysoke" (high). The village under the heights if one
can say this way in English (My native language is Ukrainian,
so...). Its name in Polish is nearly identical: Podwysokie
since Polish and Ukrainian are very similar languages, resembling
each other very much and West Ukrainian dialect and Polish are
mutually intelligible.

Pidvysoke Railway
Station. At this place just the front view of the picture I
walked daily during the summer. Since pasture is to the right on
the mountain where I pastured cows.

Pidvysoke railway
junction:

Pidvysoke became connected with Ternopil by
railway in 1897. The state railway Ternopil (Ostriv) - Pidvysoke
(72, 3 km.) was built during Austrian rule due to the strategic
reasons. It was opened on 25 th of January, 1897. Since then
Pidvysoke is an important railway junction. Later the railawy was
built further to Rohatyn and Khodoriv. You can get here by train
from Lviv through Khodoriv and Rohatyn or from Ternopil through
Berezhany. Many inter city buses (Dolyna - Ternopil,
Ivano-Frankivsk Ternopil, Perehinske-Kalush - Ternopil,
Truskavets - Stryi/Stryy/Stryj - Ternopil, Chortkiv - Lviv,
Morshyn - Ternopil, Cherche-Rohatyn-Ternopil) run through
Pidvysoke and stop here (both at Lopushna Bus Stop or at
Pidvysoke Bus Stop). Also daily buses from Berezhany go to
Pidvysoke. As well as daily buses from Rohatyn to nearby Lopushna
village which si a walk from Pidvysoke.

PIDVYSOKE EXACT LOCATION on THE MAP
OF THE CENTRAL PART OF WEST UKRAINE
(Pidvysoke is not marked on thsi map since it is too small
locality, but it's inbetween Berezhany and Rogatin by
Gonuratovka/Honorativka):

Pidvysoke is not marked
on this map above (since it is too small village) but it is
located just inbetween Rogatin and Berezhany (upper central part)
on this map at point where road, railway and river merge, in that
valley. Gonuratuvka (marked on the map, though the right way to
spell thsi name wll be Honorativka but it is called usualy
Hornativka by locals) is closest village to it.

And on this topographic
Soviet map (of parts of Rohatyn, Berezhany and Peremyshliany
districts of West Ukraine) you will find name Pidvysoke written
in Russian (as Podvysokoye) at the lowest right corner in the
very bottom, left to the small and thin red line, which is the
highway. A large town in the bottomleft corner is Rohatyn.
Berezhany is to the right and is not seen on this map. The thick
red line is Lviv region's border. Lviv region (its Peremyshliany
district) is to the north of the red line and Ternopil region
(its Berezhany district) and Ivano-Frankivsk region (its Rohatyn
district) are to the south of this line. Green areas are forests.
Black dots - houses and localities. Wavy lines - mountain/hill
encircling lines.

View of the valley over Pidvysoke village from
Lopushna mountain...
River Narayivka (Naraivka) a tributary of Dnister (Dniestr) flows
through Pidvysoke valley.

Pidvysoke gothic Church. View from the
Pidvysoke church hill...

This the cemetry monument from FIRST WORLD WAR
at Austrian First World war military cemetery in Pidvysoke
Lopushna Mountain.
The monument inscription says in German:

ANDENKEN
DIE SPATEREN
EIN BEISPIL
UND VORBILD

which means: OFFSPRINGS, REMIND YOURSELF AN EXAMPLE AND VIRTUE!
Authors referred to the soldiesr burried at that Pidvysoke
cemetery who died in firce First World war battle in Pidvysoke
area mainly in 1914-1916.

Copyrights@2001-2020
by ROMAN ZAKHARII.
All copyrights reserved!
Page created by Roman Zakharii from Berezhany
on 02.02.2001 in Oslo, Norway
(where I studied and worked).
Last update on 06.08.2013 in Reykjavik, Iceland.Picture
to the right: me in Pidvysoke,
next to my grandparents' house.
Click on it for larger view